Skaneateles Lake 4/1
Guided John and John Jr. for around 6 hours today. The weather forecast earlier in the week was looking very iffy with forecast high winds, rain and possible thunderstorms, but we decided to go for it after the forecast moderated. We were the only boat at the launch when we put in just before 8:30 am. It was raining a bit, but the winds were actually very light. I’m not a fan of light winds on this lake but we gave it our best shot. John Jr. did most of the fishing though his dad fished a little bit. They were out with me a few years ago on this lake and had caught a nice pickerel and bass, but no trout.
Overall action was slow on the day. John Jr. wound up picking up a smallmouth around 13″ on a hairjig along a dropoff. I showed the guys the laker jigging pattern but we didn’t spend more than 20 minutes with it. John had really wanted to catch a rainbow on the lake (the guys have a place there) so we gave it our best shot. Halfway through the day the rain stopped, sun came out and the winds cranked up out of the north. We finally had some good conditions. We were about to leave an area when John Jr. finally hooked up with some silver – a nice landlocked salmon around 16″ to 17″ long. That was it on the day. Water temps hit 43 degrees up north, were 39 on the east shore and 41 on the west shore. I expect good fishing here once we have a good wind pattern. Lake level is a little low but ok.